


The Loophole was a Loop

by Allemande



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Gen, fix it real good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 21:53:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5602408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allemande/pseuds/Allemande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey! The Doctor knew it all came down to that in the end. But had he known that that was the answer to two things that made his life so sad - had he known that the answer was a loop - he wouldn't have spent so much time looking for loopholes.<br/><br/>Basically a self-indulgent mega-fix-it, though hopefully also a nice little story to read between two things one should really be doing instead. ;-)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. River brings Donna back

“What are you doing?”  
  
The woman who had spoken looked quite old by human standards but had the curious aspect of one much older even than that.  
  
On the dais before her stood a taller woman with her back turned. All she could see was a mop of unruly hair; but she knew that head well enough by now.  
  
“That is a window – it must be used only to observe, not to travel!” Still receiving no reply, she stepped forward. “Listen to me – under no circumstances must you step through that window!”  
  
River Song turned, winked at the old woman, and stepped into the Time Vortex.

 

* * *

  
“Evan! Come back here at once!”  
  
The little boy with the curly black hair giggled as he wove his way through the crowd, away from his mother.  
  
“Evan!!”  
  
Suddenly, the boy was stopped by a pair of legs. He looked up with big eyes.  
  
“Not running away, are we?” said the woman who towered over him. For some reason, Evan was finding himself rooted to the spot.  
  
“Evan!” His mother, somewhere near them.  
  
The woman, who had really nice big curly hair, crouched down. “Evan – that you then?” The boy nodded. “And why are we running away from our mum?”  
  
Evan shrugged. He couldn't really remember the reason, except that it was fun the way his mother shouted.  
  
“Fun, huh?” the woman said, and Evan stared, because obviously this was someone who could read minds. “I get it. But it's not that much fun for your mum, you know. She'll be worried.”  
  
Evan saw that now. “Sorry,” he said in a small voice.  
  
The mind-reader grinned. “Better save that for your mum.” She got up and faced Evan's mum hurrying towards them – and stared.  
  
“Thank you so much,” Evan's mum panted. “Evan, _how many times_? You do not leave Mummy's side when we're out shopping! Do you see how many people there are? You could have got lost!” And she pulled him towards her. Evan hugged her legs and looked back towards the mind-reader.  
  
“Go on, then,” the woman said, though she wasn't looking at him, but still staring at his mother.  
  
“Sorry, Mummy,” Evan mumbled.  
  
His mum sighed. “Well I hope you are, sweetheart. Just don't keep running off and get Mummy all worried.” She looked up and rolled her eyes at the other woman, who smiled.  
  
“Such a stubborn little thing, this one. Thanks again for your help. I'm Donna.” And as she held out her hand, she frowned. “That is... we've met, haven't we?”  
  
Evan looked back up at the other woman, who looked uncomfortable, and he thought maybe mind-reading was something you could pick up, because he was pretty sure he could read hers, now.  
  
“Er,” she said.  
  


* * *

  
The Doctor was waiting for his coffee. He was nursing a big headache that he felt only partly responsible for. That last double whiskey had obviously been too much. But the ensuing fight hadn't been his fault... had it?  
  
He winced. Thinking about it made his head hurt more.  
  
“What can I get you, love?”  
  


* * *

  
They'd sat down at a table outside a cafe, overlooking a playground, and both watched Evan silently as they waited for their coffees. Donna was massaging her temples, saying Evan's bid for freedom had given her a headache.  
  
River wasn't quite sure that was the reason.  
  
“So where _do_ I know you from?” Donna winced. “Ugh, my head. I swear to you, that little boy will be the death of me.” She looked towards the playground with a fond expression.  
  
“How old is he?” River asked, her voice casual.  
  
“Four and a half,” Donna said and smiled. “Biggest tantrums are over, but very much a mind of his own by now, and God does he let us feel it. I don't even know where he gets it from. My mum says I was perfectly lovely as a kid. Up until puberty, when she says everything went to hell. And my husband, well, he's never so much as raised his voice since I've known him...”  
  
River was sure Donna hadn't noticed, but she had taken her hands down during her speech and now looked perfectly pain-free.  
  
Which, of course, didn't surprise River at all.  
  
She kept Donna talking and looking away from her, until their coffees arrived and Donna studied her again.  
  
“I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before,” she frowned, and her hand went back up to her temple. “And, well, you don't just go and have coffee with complete strangers.” She massaged her forehead. “Ow.”  
  
“Don't you? I do that all the time,” River smiled. “Listen, I think we ought to get you home.”  
  
Donna closed her eyes, wincing as a particularly sharp wave of pain seemed to hit her. “I don't understand what's wrong with me,” she gasped.  
  
“I do. Come on.”  
  
River didn't really have a plan, but she scooped up Donna's shooping bags and Evan from the playground and climbed into a taxi with them, Donna holding her head and whimpering and Evan still looking at River, awe-struck. Donna managed to gasp out her address and pressed her phone into River's hand, asking her to call her husband.  
  
The call made and the flat reached, River ushered them inside and led Donna straight to her bedroom, where she collapsed.  
  
“Don't worry,” River said to Evan, “I can put her right again.”  
  
“I know,” said the boy matter-of-factly. “You got superpowers.”  
  
River smiled, and feeling Evan's gaze on her, put her hands to Donna's temples.  
  
There – she could make her forget everything again. Or –  
  
Oh now.  
  
_That_ should have been unexpected, but somehow wasn't.  
  
A key turned in the lock, and Donna's husband came rushing in. River stepped back and took the scene in as Shaun crouched down by the bed and stroked his wife's hair, while Evan clung to his father's leg and patted his mother's hand.  
  
She frowned. What right did she have, even for a moment, to consider taking this away from them?

 

* * *

  
He looked up at the waitress. And gaped.  
  
“Oh, now that's just not fair,” he sighed.  
  
“What isn't?” The red-head smiled brightly at him. “That hangover you seem to be nursing?”  
  
He stared at her. “What's your name?”  
  
She looked a little taken aback, but shrugged. “Ellie.”  
  
“Ellie,” he repeated. “So just the universe playing cruel tricks on me then, giving a waitress on Principia IV the same face as –” He sighed. “Never mind. Can I have a coffee? Black.”  
  
“Coming right up.” She smiled at him and was gone. He stared after her, shaking his head.  
  
Not fair.  
  


* * *

  
  
“You know?” River gaped at Shaun.  
  
“Bits and pieces,” he shrugged.  
  
He'd put Evan to bed and she'd done her best to stabilize Donna for now, while half-listening to the boy explaining to his father that she was a good witch who could read minds and heal people.  
  
As they sat in the comfortable, spacious parlour, Shaun sighed, running a hand over his face, and took a swig of his beer. “She gets these really bad headaches sometimes. Never this bad, mind you. And then sometimes she has visions along with them. Really weird ones. Aliens and stuff.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why am I even telling you this? It's like I trust you.”  
  
“I have that effect on people,” River said airily, smiling, and nodded encouragingly.  
  
“So then one day her grandpa was there when it happened, and he said, 'Oh no, she's remembering'.” Shaun pursed his lips, staring at his bottle. “I nagged him for ages until he finally explained some of it to me. I think he thinks I'm a bit dim, so it probably doesn't matter that much.”  
  
“I happen to think you're very clever, realizing that that was actually the truth,” River offered, and he smiled.  
  
“Well, it fit in with everything else.” He looked at her quizzically. “So you know him? This... Doctor?”  
  
She nodded. “And Donna and I met once while she was travelling with him. I'm the reason she started remembering again today. I didn't mean to make it happen,” she added quickly. “I just met her by accident.”  
  
Not quite the truth: the portal was unlikely to have brought her here merely by accident. But there was no need to go into that.  
  
“And can you set her right again?”  
  
River took a moment to reply. “That depends on your definition of right.” He frowned, and she explained, “I could make her forget everything again... or I could make her remember.”  
  
“But she'd die, Wilfred said,” replied Shaun, alarmed. “He said the Doctor said she would die if she remembered. And he seems to think the Doctor is some kind of genius, so he'd know, wouldn't he?”  
  
River shook her head. “I'm pretty sure I know a way around it, one the Doctor didn't see. Or actually, to be precise, one he couldn't ever have found out about.” She paused. “But it would mean great changes to you and your family. The three of you look really happy together. I'm not sure I have the right to interfere.”  
  
Shaun was quiet for a long while. He seemed to be the type to only speak when he had something to say. River quite liked that in a person, mostly because it was so unlike her.  
  
“I know it looks like we're doing all right,” he said, finally, “and we are, mostly. But I know that deep down she's not happy. Whenever she thinks I'm not looking, she –” He broke off and sighed. “She's not whole.”  
  


* * *

  
  
“Here's your coffee,” said a different voice.  
  
His head shot up, but he'd already known anyway whose face he would see: He knew this voice better than any other.  
  
“What's your name then?” he asked, wondering whether he was possibly still passed out and dreaming.  
  
“Tammy.”  
  
It was her face alright. Complete with curls and laughing eyes. But it was the hangover, he knew. Maybe there had been hallucinogens in that whiskey. Or there was something in this bar that made you think you met old friends. Either way, he didn't much care.  
  
“Any chance that's not your real name?” he tried feebly.  
  
Tammy frowned and shook her head, and she looked so genuinely confused that the Doctor shrugged, tore his gaze away from her and looked back out the window.  
  
There was no point torturing himself by looking at her.  
  


* * *

  
  
Donna awoke from a deep sleep.  
  
Or was she falling into a deeper one? It was difficult to tell.  
  
River Song was by her bedside.  
  
River Song?  
  
The archaeologist from the Library. The one who knew the Doctor -  
  
Donna screwed up her eyes, waiting for the pain. But it didn't come.  
  
“Hello, Donna,” River said, softly. She looked real enough. But Donna's vision was blurry, and she felt like the world kept readjusting around her.  
  
“It'll take you a while to wake up, but you'll be fine,” River said. “And – er – I had to take a few things.”  
  
Donna gasped. There was someone – two people – two very important people – she couldn't have taken them –  
  
“Evan,” she murmured. “Shaun.”  
  
“Not them, no,” River smiled. “Since you can obviously remember them.”  
  
“Where are they?”  
  
“Evan's at school and Shaun's at work.”  
  
“But... it was the Christmas holidays...”  
  
“You've been asleep for a while, Donna. It's mid-January now.”  
  
Donna, having listened to all of this with her eyes closed, opened them and stared at River. Then she sat up, slowly, and took in her surroundings.  
  
She was still in the bedroom of her flat in Islington. And more importantly, she was still in her old mind, the one that had always felt like it was missing something. And yet –  
  
“I can remember him,” she said. “I can remember the Doctor. But I'm back to...” She swallowed, and tried not to look at the gaping black hole inside her mind.  
  
River shook her head slowly. “I had to take a few things to make you whole, and you won't remember everything that he ever knew. Frankly, that would be a little alarming anyway,” she added, grinning. “But you will remember more and more as time passes. And,” she smiled  and grasped Donna's hand, “you're definitely not back to being just human.”  
  
As Donna looked down at their joined hands, she saw it: the regenerative light warmed their skin, barely perceptible, just beneath the surface, and gone as soon as River let go.  
  
Donna closed her eyes again as sleep regained her, River laying her gently back down – or was it Shaun? her mother? was it all a dream after all? ...  
  


* * *

  
  
“Anything to eat, love?”  
  
It was the first one again. Ellie, he reminded himself.  
  
“I'll have a pain au chocolat,” he tried, not having looked once at the menu.  
  
Ellie nodded, not a hint of a smile on her lips. “Pain au chocolat it is.”  
  
Donna would have laughed at him for ordering something fancy-schmancy. Not to mention butchered the pronunciation.  
  
He sighed as his headache became a constant drumming. This must be what the Master felt like. Mad, and possibly constantly hungover.  
  
_Was_ it worth investigating what went on in this bar? Or should he just sit around and wait for more familiar faces to turn up? Maybe the cook looked like the Brigadier and the owner like Astrid...  
  


* * *

  
  
It was on a rainy evening in March that it suddenly occurred to Donna.  
  
She'd been doing all sorts of research to find River. She'd even broken into UNIT HQ once (they hadn't noticed) and done a search for her.  
  
Nothing after 5073. There were plenty of mentions of her before that in the UNIT database – pretty comprehensive when it came to Time Travelers –, and some clever (obsessed) soul had even started linking her to the Doctor and started a flowchart on the occasions their timelines coincided.  
  
But it looked like River ceased to exist after 5073 (Donna was pretty sure that was the year of their visit to the Library). And yet the River who had come to see her had definitely met her...  
  
( _Had_ it all been a dream? No – stupid – Shaun had confirmed that River had been there... _God_ , she was still so _slow_...)  
  
Donna spent a while pondering this on her own. Jack Harkness appeared to have left Earth and she didn't quite feel ready to contact the Doctor yet – her mind was still adjusting and would probably overload if she saw him now.  
  
Finally, on that evening three months after River's visit, as she was listening to Shaun reading Evan a bed-time story, it clicked.  
  
It was a loop. A great, big, paradoxical, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey loop, and the part of her that remembered the old, uptight, rule-abiding Gallifreyans, and the faces they would be pulling right now, giggled.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Here's your pain au chocolat.”  
  
The Doctor looked up.  
  
“Tell me, 'Tammy',” his fingers sketched quotation marks around her name, “how long have you been working here?”  
  
Tammy with the curly hair and the big red mouth and the laughter lines around her eyes looked at him in a puzzled sort of fashion and said “Two years, why?”  
  
“Anyone ever told you you look like someone they know?”  
  
She thought about that for a moment. “Not really, no.” She smiled. “Why, do I remind you of someone?”  
  
He stared into her eyes. All innocence. And yet, those eyes...  
  
He shrugged. “Never mind.”  
  
And he kept her talking for a while, just to have an excuse to look at her.


	2. Donna brings River back

“What are you doing?”  
  
The little girl sounded panicked. No wonder. The last time she had seen a human outside of the datacore, they had almost destroyed her little world, and been destroyed themselves. The little girl was someone who cared.  
  
“Don't worry,” Donna said over her shoulder. “Enough light here, see? The shadows shouldn't be able to get at me for now. I just need to project a copy of my consciousness into the... there, that should do it...”  
  
And she was there.  
  
It was like a half-remembered dream. Well, in a way it was.  
  
“Donna!”  
  
Miss Evangelista. Donna had hoped she wouldn't meet any of the others. Her plan had been to pop in, grab River and get out of here... but it was never that easy, was it. (As evidenced by the fact that she'd planned for the vortex manipulator to transport her exactly to the centre of the planet, and had ended up on the surface, four miles off. There had been a lot of running after that.)  
  
“Donna, what are you doing here?” The girl was beautiful again, her long dark hair hanging over her shoulders, and she was wearing a white dress. It was a bit like heaven. If you forgot about the fact that this was actually a computer hard drive.  
  
“You never died back in the Library,” Miss Evangelista said, looking worried. “Did you?”  
  
“No,” Donna smiled and hugged her. “I'm not really here, actually. I'm just a projection. I'm looking for River.”  
  
Miss Evangelista nodded slowly, wisely. “I'll take you to her.”  
  
It was very realistic, Donna thought. Nothing like the sudden bursts of last time, where they'd been in one place at one moment and in another a second after that. They actually walked across a whole field, Miss Evangelista asking her many questions about her life and Donna telling her about her family, before they knocked on the door of a pretty house (which admittedly looked a lot like the one Donna had once “lived” in).  
  
“Do I know you?” were the first words River spoke to her, and Donna realized, again, that this was going to take a lot longer than she'd thought.  
  
Here was hoping that a) time was passing more slowly in the real world and b) that circle of light that she'd created in the main computer room would hold. It would be such an anticlimax to get back and discover that she'd been eaten by the Vashta Nerada.  
  
A little while after that, she was sitting in the parlour of River's house, explaining everything. Miss Evangelista had gone home. River's children – two fake ones, as she said herself, smiling fondly, and the third an image of Cal – were at school.  
  
“How long's it been for you?” River asked. “Since we saw each other, I mean.”  
  
“About six years.”  
  
For some reason, River looked hugely relieved.  
  
“And you? Can you tell?”  
  
River shrugged. “Time sort of stands still here. I mean, Cal doesn't grow up, so...”  
  
“Right.”  
  
“So how did you even get back to the Library?”  
  
Donna thought it would probably be best not to mention the loop right now. River, the other River, hadn't, and that had been a wise move; you never wanted the actors of a preordained series of events to know that they were actually preordained.  
  
“I, er, I'm part Time Lord now,” she said, trying and failing to sound off-hand. River smiled.  
  
“Yes, he told me about that at some point. But he also said he had to take your memories so you could survive.”  
  
“I got them back – long story.”  
  
“I see. So you're travelling with him again?”  
  
“No, I haven't actually seen him. I'm travelling by vortex manipulator.” She held up her hand, showing the wriststrap.  
  
River leaned forward. “How did you get yourself one of those?” She was obviously enjoying this conversation.  
  
“Er. Also a long story.” Donna paused. “The reason I'm here is... well, I've thought of a way to get you out. To rematerialize you in the real world. If you want to.”  
  
River sat back and took a slow look around her parlour.   
  
Donna waited, doubts creeping into her mind. What right did she have to tear River away from this beautiful place, from her family and friends?  
  
“The thing is,” River said finally, “he didn't know me when he uploaded my consciousness to the datacore. He'd only just met me. He couldn't have possibly known that this – well, let's just say that in spite of the children, whom I do love, and in spite of my friends, this place isn't ideally suited for me.”  
  
Donna released the breath she'd been holding.  
  
“So,” River said, and a wicked, adventurous grin Donna hadn't seen on her before spread across her face, “what do we do?”  
  
Donna grinned back.  
  
“Well, I set this up,” she pointed at the wriststrap, “the projection of the real vortex manipulator, that is, to act as a recall, so I'll get back to the main computer room, and I can rematerialize you from your signature, I checked and it's all still intact, so if you're ready –”  
  
“Hold on,” River said, getting up from the couch.  
  
Donna's heart fell. River must have seen it, because she smiled. “Not changing my mind, don't worry. But I need to make sure the children will be cared for. And I need to say goodbye. To Cal especially; she's a good girl.”  
  
Donna nodded. “Of course. Send me a message through Cal when you're ready.” River nodded, and she activated the recall.  
  
Back in her own body and pleased to find that she hadn't so far been eaten, Donna was nonetheless worried by the light starting to flicker, and she spent quite a bit of time on fixing them and frantically counting the shadows.   
  
Finally, the command node Cal turned to her and announced that River was ready.  
  
Was it Donna's imagination, or did the little girl's face look sad?  
  
“I'm sorry I'm taking her away from you,” she said.  
  
“I know.” Cal closed her eyes briefly. “But she'll be happier in your world. She's not really the type to stand still.”  
  
“Thank you, Cal.”  
  
The actual operation was more complicated than the test run had led her to believe, and Donna found herself running around the console a lot, swearing. Finally, it appeared: a pillar of light, just like a transporter beam, that slowly turned into the woman, the actual, real, living River Song.  
  
River gasped, looked around the room, and fainted.  
  


* * *

  
  
The Doctor was growing increasingly impatient with the regular reappearance of these two smiling women who looked like River Song and Donna Noble without so much as a spark of recognition in their eyes as they looked at him.  
  
His first instinct was to run, to stop torturing himself. But curiosity got the better of him.  
  
And maybe some part of him, just a tiny part of course, that didn't want to stop looking at them just yet.  
  
He ordered another bite to eat from “Tammy” and then slowly, stealthily, crept into the kitchen after her as the other guests' backs were turned. In the kitchen, he hid himself quickly behind one of the counters.  
  


* * *

  
  
When River awoke, there was a peculiar kind of sunlight waiting just behind her eyelids. She didn't dare open her eyes. She knew that light. And yet she had never seen it, not really; but it was exactly the same kind of light she had sometimes seen in her dreams. She'd told the Doctor about it once, and establishing a psychic link to look at her memory, he'd proclaimed, with no little astonishment in his voice, that a very basic, primal part of her must be remembering the light of –  
  
– she opened her eyes –  
  
Gallifrey.  
  
She barely had a second to look out the window from her bed, when there was a sudden movement to her left; as she turned her head, she could just about make out a young girl scrambling from the room.  
  
She got up and looked out the window. God. His description of “oppressively beautiful” made a lot of sense now.  
  
Looking down at herself, she saw that she was dressed in a fine silk robe of an infinite number of colours – or was it just black? She shook her head to clear it. She didn't quite feel like herself. The mirror seemed to be telling her that she looked the same; but a lot of things felt off, and she was rather shaky on her feet.  
  
The door opened, revealing a woman in red robes who looked much older than her years – and Donna.  
  
Donna, ignoring the woman's very palpable authority, rushed past her, hugged River and sat her back on the bed.  
  
“How do you feel?”  
  
“Huh. A bit weird.” River studied Donna, frowning. “You brought me here, didn't you?”  
  
Donna nodded. “I brought you back to Earth at first. And I was able to stabilize you, because, well, it turns out we're both part human, part Time Lord. I didn't know that about you.”  
  
“Yeah, long story,” River winked, and Donna smiled, recognizing a phrase she had used a lot recently.  
  
“But I couldn't really heal you properly.” Donna looked a little sheepish. “The rematerialization only half-worked, because I'd assumed you were human. But it turns out that Time Lords are a bit more complicated, biologically. Who'd have known?”  
  
River smiled. “I remember now... I told you to take me here.”  
  
“Yeah. I didn't even know Gallifrey was back.”  
  
“At the end of the universe,” River nodded.  
  
She'd been studying the old woman. Having watched their exchange impassively so far, she now frowned ever so slightly at River. Probably disapproving of how much the Doctor had told her about them, River thought. She smiled at the woman, who frowned even more.  
  
“Why did that girl who was watching me run from the room like I was a dangerous animal?” she inquired casually.  
  
The old woman said nothing, only studied her, and River thought that it was a good thing she had a lot of experience with how infuriating Time Lords could be.  
  
“They're scared of us,” offered Donna, an amused smile tugging at her mouth. “The Time Lords seem to worry about beings that are half Time Lord, for some reason.”  
  
“Ohh, the Hybrid!” River saw that her knowledge of this legend displeased the old woman even more, and smiled. “Yes, I can see that we would be a little scary. How are we even allowed to be here?”  
  
“The High Council does not know that you are,” the woman finally broke the silence. “And I suggest that we do not tell them. You are in the temple of the Sisterhood of Karn.”  
  
Donna cocked her head to one side. “But we're on Gallifrey. Didn't you use to have your own planet?”  
  
“Destroyed in the war,” the woman said curtly. “We rebuilt a copy of our temple on Gallifrey, on the very outskirts of the Capitol.”  
  
The woman, thought River, was visibly trying not to panic at the discovery of two hybrids knowing so much about them. Yet River was beginning to think that maybe she was on their side.  
  
“Thank you for taking me in,” she offered.   
  
The woman looked just a shade friendlier. “You need to be healed on Gallifrey to become fully whole again. The Doctor and I are old friends. I will do what is required to return his wife to him in good health.”  
  
It was River's turn to be surprised at how much the other woman knew, which she could see pleased her.   
  
It was going to be an interesting battle, then.

* * *

  
  
The Doctor watched as “Tammy” and “Ellie” stood together by the stove, looking like old friends, waitresses who had been working together for a long time, and the Doctor thought he was obviously just mad, it was spatial genetic multiplicity or something similarly annoying.  
  
Until he heard Ellie say, “Well, it's been fun and all, but don't you reckon we should stop torturing him?”   
  
And Tammy looked at her, a twinkle in her eye, and said “Your call. I'm _never_ ready to stop doing that.”  
  


* * *

  
  
About three months after Donna had brought her to Gallifrey, three months of mostly uninterrupted boredom, it suddenly occurred to River what must happen now. Why Donna had disappeared soon after making sure that River was all right (and being briefly treated by the Sisterhood herself).  
  
Great big chicken and egg paradox! And Donna was clever enough to know not to interfere, to know that River must work this out herself.   
  
High Priestess Ohila would not be best pleased, River thought as she crept into the room containing – so she had worked out by now – an Untempered Schism.

* * *

  
  
“He looks sad.”  
  
The Doctor watched through a gap between two cupboards as Donna absent-mindedly stirred the scrambled eggs.  
  
“And old.”  
  
River nodded. “He's both.” They both had their backs turned to him, but he could see by the way her head and shoulders shifted slightly that she was smiling. “And also young and ridiculous, like the last time you saw him.”  
  
“When was that, then, for him?”  
  
“A hundred years or so, I should think,” River said, and the Doctor smiled as the lie came easily over her lips. She was right – there was no need for Donna to know how long it had really been for him.  
  
“And you?” Donna asked. “Do you know how long it's been for him since he last saw you?”  
  
“About six years,” said the Doctor, stepping into the light, and River crashed the cups she'd been holding.  
  
There was a lot of hugging, and hurried explanations, and a laughing mention of the chicken and egg paradox while the scrambled eggs burnt to charcoal, and finally, running, as it turned out that the owner of this particular cafe usually fired people by cutting their heads off.  
  
Finally, they collapsed on the bridge of the Tardis, all three of them lying on the floor and laughing harder than either of them could remember.  
  



	3. Two Hybrids and a Time Lord

“And Ohila helped you both heal,” the Doctor said wonderingly, alternately gazing at River and at Donna, as they were sitting in the kitchen on Deck Five, eating their third breakfast of the day. “Well, I'll have to think of a way to thank her.”  
  
River pursed her lips. “When you do, I might come along and say sorry for running out on her.” She winked.  
  
“I'm sure she'll understand,” said Donna, off-handedly. “I mean, you had to go and complete the loop by bringing me back.”  
  
The two women smiled at each other.  
  
“By the way, I did wonder,” Donna added, “Where did you go after you came to me? It must have been three months I didn't see you. You only left your vortex manipulator, but no word of where you went.”  
  
“Oh, I went here and there,” River shrugged. “I was pretty sure I had to stay out of your sight – and yours,” she pointed at the Doctor, “before the loop was completed.” She looked back at Donna and grinned. “Anyway, you paid me back good and proper by leaving me on Gallifrey with Ohila for three months. Where did you go then?”  
  
“Oh, here and there,” Donna replied, and they all laughed.  
  
“The loophole was a loop,” the Doctor mused. “Makes sense. And couldn't have worked any other way than the hybrid healing the hybrid, I guess.” He looked from one to the other. "So at some point you must have met up again and devised this hilarious little plan of posing as waitresses on Principia IV."

River shrugged. "Oh, I hitched a ride with a Kallorian ship passing the Earth and spent a couple weeks working at a market stall on Kallos, and one day this one turns up and offers to buy the entire stock." She grinned, pointing at Donna. "The question is, how did you find me?"

Donna returned her grin and her shrug and only said "Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey."

"Ach, we need a new term for that," the Doctor complained. He looked at them both for a long time as they all sipped their tea. Finally he said in a small voice, “I did try to think of ways to get you back. Both of you. But the answers just wouldn't come.”  
  
In that 'well-obviously' voice that she had perfected by now, Donna replied, “Well, if the loop was preordained, then of course they wouldn't.”  
  
The Doctor laughed. “The DoctorDonna, wise as ever.” He stood up very suddenly and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.  
  
Donna wiggled out from under him. “Ew! Still not used to the way you look now. Not to mention that ridiculous Scottish accent. Where do you get that then?”  
  
“Oh, trust me, there's hundreds of researchers on Gallifrey still looking for an answer to that one,” he grinned.  
  
River smiled. She wasn't quite done just looking at him.  
  
“So! Where do we go next?” Donna asked, excitedly getting up from the table. “Have to be back home by five, mind you. But I'm pretty sure I'm better at landing in the correct timeframe than you are, Spaceman.” She looked from one to the other. They were still sitting. “Come on! Let's have some adventure! Two Hybrids and a Time Lord, what could possibly go wrong?”  
  
She looked expectantly at the Doctor and River, who exchanged a look. Donna rolled her eyes.  
  
“Fine. You two lovebirds catch up while Mummy goes to fire up the engine. Might take a while on repairs.” She skipped out of the kitchen, and halfway down the corridor, they heard her call, “The relative differentiator is on the blip, have you noticed?”  
  
River and the Doctor grinned, first in the direction of the door, then at each other.  
  
They both stood up at the same time and moved towards each other, first hesitantly, then in a rush.  
  
“I'm sorry I never thought of a loophole,” he murmured into her hair as he hugged her tightly to him.  
  
She smiled, breathing in the familiar smell. All the time she'd been – wherever she'd been – she had never forgotten it. “Well, you heard the DoctorDonna. You couldn't have.”  
  
“Right.” He chuckled, and she felt it all over her body. “The DoctorDonna. I'm going to have to get used to that again.”  
  
He loosened his grip slightly, and she pulled away just a little to see him frowning. It was one of those looks that she'd come to know on Darillium: an 'I'm going to abandon the brave front for a second and be completely readable' look.  
  
“Was she okay?” he asked in a low voice.  
  
River smiled and lifted a hand to stroke through his hair, feeling him leaning into the touch. Oh, she had thought about this moment during the last three months, wondered where he would have moved on, found somebody else; at any rate, she'd been sure he'd take ages to get used to her again... It looked as though she needn't have worried.

“She was fine," she said at length. "She's got an adorable husband and a feisty little kid. I actually felt a bit bad about, you know. Opening the door to other things.”  
  
“Why?” he looked puzzled. Of course he did. Some things he would never understand.  
  
“Well, you know. The life we lead. It doesn't exactly make it easy to have a family alongside.”  
  
“Oh, I don't know about that,” he said, very seriously, looking down at her, and she felt a happiness spreading inside of her that she'd completely forgotten she was capable of feeling. She kissed him, and by the way he looked at her when she finally pulled away, she knew that six years without her had been nowhere near enough for him to forget her.  
  
“Shall we continue catching up later and go do some running with the DoctorDonna?” she asked, her arms still around his neck.  
  
He grinned and lifted her up, spun her around, and pulled her out the door towards the bridge.

 

**The End**


End file.
